In Kenneth's own words, part 12

(1944) Back Home

I went to work for Ren Ward sorting potatoes on a potato sorter for a while. I worked for him all that summer. I was drafted the minute I got home, both Harvey and I were drafted, we went down and reported that fall, but they didn’t take me they took Harvey he had to go. But they sent me home and put me in limited service. Then they found out that I had been a school teacher and they figured that was war related and so they got me a job. That’s the only job teaching school, that I didn’t have to look for. So I started teaching then in Idaho Falls at O.E. Bell Junior High, and I taught there for two years. Three or four years before a lot of kids had quit school before they graduated from the eighth grade. Well the Superintendent passed the law that all the kids had to pass the eighth grade so they rounded up twenty-five of those mavericks and that is who I taught that year. Some of them were fairly old. Some of them were nearly as old as I. Some of them were eighteen, nineteen, but they all had to finish and I got them through the eighth grade. Some of them hadn’t learned how to read very well or do math. It was fun, really fun! I had one incident. One older boy, he must have been about twenty, because he had two younger brothers that were in the same group. I had to let them out, (a lot of them out) for five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the afternoon so they could go across the street and smoke because they couldn’t smoke on the school grounds. And he was one of them, Sam Waddell. And I’d like to digress just a moment, because later on when I was down here (Salt Lake, Utah), during my junior year at the University of Utah, during the summer, I was working at Continental Bakery in the evenings and going to school during the day time. And I came out and the rear wheels were leaking oil. So I had to take it down to Streeter Chevrolet and oh they needed a lot of work all the gaskets were gone, they had to fix it up. So when I went to pick it up, the bill was only $11.00 and I said, there is something wrong here, this isn’t right and they said, you’ll have to settle that with the head mechanic, he made out the bill. So I went back to see the mechanic and it was Sam Waddell and he said, I’ve been waiting all my life to get even with you. He said, “You changed my life. You made something out of my life”. He said, “I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write and then you took me in and taught me all those things. So, you didn’t charge me and I’m not going to charge you. That’s just the cost of the gaskets”. So, I got that done and it sure helped; besides we didn’t have a great deal of money. Now, getting back to where we were, I taught that year, that group and the next year, I taught regular school. I taught seventh and eighth grade math in O. E. Bell Junior High.

(1945) Courting

During the summer, I met my wife, Jeanne Adeline Smith. This Glenna Crowley that I told you about in Detroit had come home, to Idaho Falls, because her husband was in the army and had been sent overseas. So he got sent overseas and she went home. So she invited me over for dinner and invited Jeanne over also. I was engaged to a Jean Gerard right after I got home from my mission. I met her and we were engaged for about three or four months and then we got to discussing having children and she didn’t want children. I met with her one night and I said, “I wonder if we ought not break off our engagement for awhile until I can get better established and we can see if we still feel the same way”. So we did and I got my ring back. So then I started going with a girl by the name of Mauna Rich, her father was Stake President in Black Foot. But anyway, I was going with her when Glenna invited me over to dinner and Jeanne was there. I took her home from dinner and we talked awhile and were able to get better acquainted. I knew the Smith family, because Lamar Sayer and I had been very good friends and his father was in the temple presidency with President Smith. The temple wasn’t opened yet, but they were already set apart as a presidency. So I was there with Lamar several times, and David Smith and his wife would come over and visit with the Sayers. So I knew them and I taught Joanne and maybe even Laprele, I can’t remember which, in school. And I knew Kay, because our auditorium was better than the high schools, so the high school would hold their entertainment in our gym/stage. So I met Kay, that way. But I had double dated with Carole and Forrest, so I knew them. And I also double dated one night with Lowell Bishop and he was with Rayola. So I knew Rayola. But, anyway, I knew the family fairly well. And then I went about my business. I was painting for the school district that summer and so I was busy and had a good job and a good place to live and Jeanne called me two or three times and had me come out to dinner and various things and we got to going together.